Where to buy wood from

[Ioannis]

Hi all,

Me and a few mates are going to build a tensile shade structure for our new camp this year.

As we are all coming from abroad, I'm trying to find out where is the best place to buy structural wood beams? They need to be 3.5m long and 150mmX150mm profile. We need six of those beasts?

Any ideas?

[Savannah]

I got some results by heading to Yelp.com and entering "lumber" into the find box and "Reno, NV" into the location box and hitting enter. Home Depot does not appear on the list (they are a mega store, and don't really need the help) but there are several HD branches in Reno, too.

Plenty of places will allow you to order ahead and pick up.

Make sure you take the hours of operation into account, especially if you're flying in on a Sunday or very early in the morning.

[Ugly Dougly]

You'll get a lot further if you convert to "English" units.

[Canoe]

and watch out for
- wood that are not structural quality (like, wtf are they selling them for?)
- "studs" that are only meant to take a load in-line
- don't count on them being straight

150x150 is 5.9"
3.5m is 11.48 feet

[Canoe]

good news, 12 foot lengths are fairly common here
in 6"x6" it isn't as common
but 2"x6" is
and a big but, 2"x6" are not 2" x 6"
(a friend's house has 2x4 and 2x6 studs that are actually that dimension - only time I've ever seen it)

2x6 is the theoretical "rough cut" size
then it's dressed down (seems as the years go by, the more it's "dressed" down)
a 2x6 will usually be 1.5" x 5.5"
a 6x6 will usually be 5.5" x 5.5"
your results purchases may vary

Rather than buying 6x6, it's usually more economical to buy, and easier to transport, 2"x6"x 12' or 2"x6"x8' and make your own beams. You'll get 4 pieces side-by-side, for 6" x 5.5".

Can be harder to find straight 12' lengths, and 8' lengths are easier to transport too. Using 8' lengths, roughly speaking, cut some 8' down to 4' and use 8 + 4 to get your 12'. As you combine the runs side by side, stagger the joints. If you'll have larger loads, you'll need different lengths than just 4' & 8', so no joints line up in the constructed beam.

Watch out for saw dust and the like as MOOP on the playa.
Do your cutting before heading for BRC.
Not fun to hammer them together, but screwing is fast, depending on how much strength you actually need as that will determine the screwing pattern for making the beam. If you need full strength, you'll need to bolt them. Consider some glue; if you go with the construction adhesive you'll have to spray one surface with water to provide the moisture it needs to cure - very dry around Reno.

A "6x6" will take a lot of load and weigh a lot. Do you really need that thick?
Have you confirmed your design needs that strength?

You can buy pre-engineered wood beams, but harder to source and $$$.
But they will be straight.

[Canoe]

Home Depot & Lowe's in Reno. Don't know about others.
Lowe's in Reno has never been able to process my foreign credit cards or debit cards.
There is a Lowe's in Fernley (base of the highway up to BRC). Don't know if they have a saw (for cutting customer's lumber to size).

Many stores have a saw and an employee will cut your lumber down. Watch out for the accuracy: some places only guarantee to 1/4", others will cut to 1/32" accuracy but the repeatability is often 1/64" or better.
Some places you get one cut for free. Additional ones are charged. But, if they're not busy, they may treat it as one cut per piece, or just do it all for free anyway, and chop them down as per your printed list (you don't want to be figuring it out standing right there).

And you'd better be giving them the lengths to cut to in inches, not mm or cm or m. And make sure you've got it right if you designed it in meters.

[Savannah]

Wow--great stuff, Canoe!